Hospitals and health systems are increasingly focused on patient collections as they seek to minimize bad debt in an environment where more is owed directly by patients due to high-deductible plans. At the same time, patients are having greater difficulty covering these often unexpected and significant medical expenses.
A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau survey showed more than a third of consumers reported financial hardship in the past year, including inability to pay medical bills. Additionally, an annual consumer survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Board found 39 percent of respondents could only use cash on-hand to cover an unexpected medical expense of less than $100. Sixteen percent indicated they could only cover between $100 and $200 using cash on-hand, 22 percent could cover an expense between $200 and $400, and 22 percent could cover an expense that's more than $400.
With these issues in mind, Boise, Idaho-based VisitPay, formerly iVinci Health, developed its cloud-based patient financial health platform. Founded by former executives from Capital One, patients use the platform to pay, manage and set up finance plans to deal with their bills.
VisitPay's ultimate goal with the platform is "helping consumers and providers manage patient financial health with transparency, choice and control." With this help, the company argues hospitals and health systems can offer customized financing options at the individual patient level, decreasing bad debt and making patients more satisfied with their bill paying experiences.
"We believe that patients with moderate propensity to pay are a very large group of people, and if we can help those patients and as a result decrease bad debt for hospitals, that is the best benefit from VisitPay," says Will Reilly, the company's new vice president of client and consumer marketing.
"We think the conversation needs to be more than about usability but about consumer finance as well," he adds.
Investments
Mr. Reilly says with these things in mind VisitPay has drawn in new investors. The company recently completed a major funding round led by venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners. Strategic healthcare venture fund Ascension Ventures also participated.
Robert Mittendorff, MD, partner with Norwest Venture, spoke positively of the investment.
"The growth in patient financial responsibility has put health system operating margins under unprecedented pressure," he said. "We believe that the VisitPay platform will have the greatest impact on both patient outcomes and the financial health of hospital networks nationwide. We are proud to have VisitPay join our portfolio of healthcare technology leaders."
Ascension Ventures, which will invest on behalf of 13 nonprofit health systems generating close to $90 billion combined in annual net patient revenues — expressed similar sentiments.
Ascension Ventures Managing Director Victor Kats said, "Our investor base is looking for innovative solutions to drive better consumer experiences while improving patient payment rates and driving down the cost to collect. The combination of the consumer finance experience of the management team with the VisitPay platform enables health systems to offer a modern digital experience that consumers expect in all their transactions."
Mr. Reilly says the company is pleased to use the investments to grow and invest more in product but also to expand commercial availabilities and bring more scale.
Intermountain Healthcare and St. Luke's Health System
Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare began deploying VisitPay to its patients in spring 2017 and said it has already seen positive results, reporting a more than 40 percent increase in patients who rate their billing experience as "good" or "excellent."
Boise-based St. Luke's Health System, which began deploying VisitPay in 2014, has also experienced positive results, reporting a 50 percent increase in patient satisfaction ratings and a 20 percent increase in patient payment rates compared to traditional billing processes.
With the completion of the recent funding round, VisitPay hopes to continue expanding its client base of hospital systems nationwide. The company has also brought on new leaders, including Mr. Reilly, who was previously vice president of product marketing for IBM worldwide, and Mickey Lemon, a former vice president in Cerner's revenue cycle team who will lead VisitPay's sales and business development.
To learn more about how Intermountain Healthcare and St. Luke's Health System are achieving breakthrough results in patient satisfaction, administrative costs, and patient payment rates, register for this webinar.